Here, we cover relative pronouns in Palestinian-Jordanian Levantine Arabic. A relative pronoun, known in Arabic as اِسْــم مَـوْصــول (ism mawṣūl), is used to introduce a relative clause, which provides additional information about a noun in the larger sentence.
Table of Contents
- Primary Relative Pronoun in Palestinian-Jordanian Levantine Arabic
- Referring to Indefinite Nouns
- Indefinite Relative Pronouns
- Level IV – Intermediate II (B2)
Primary Relative Pronoun in Palestinian-Jordanian Levantine Arabic
In Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic, the relative pronoun اِلــلِّــيْ (illi) translates to ‘who,’ ‘which,’ ‘whom,’ or ‘that,’ and is invariable for gender and number.
Here are some examples:
| .هَــاذَا هُـــوِّ الِــكْــتَــاب اِلــلِّــيْ قَـــرِيــتُـــه hādha huwwe li-ktāb illi qareytuh This is the book that I read. |
| .هَــاي هِــيِّ الــسَّــيَّــارَة اِلــلِّــيْ بِـــدِّيْ أَشْــتِــرِيْــهَــا hāy hiyye -s-sayyārah illi biddi ’ashtirīha This is the car that I want to buy. |
| .هَـــذُولَا هُـــمِّ الْــمُــوَظَّــفِــيْــن اِلــلِّــيْ بِــشْــتِــغْــلُــوْ هُـــون hadhowla humme -l-muwaẓẓafīn illi bishtighlu hown These are the employees who work here. |
| .اِلْــبِــنْــتِــيــن اِلــلِّــيْ هُـــون بُــدْرُسُـــوْ il-binteyn illi hown budrusu The two girls that are here are studying. |
| .هَـــاذَا هُـــوِّ الــشَّــبّ اِلــلِّــيْ زُرْتُـــه hādha huwwe ish-shabb illi zurtuh This is the young man whom I visited. |
Referring to Indefinite Nouns
In Arabic, unlike in English, we do not use a relative pronoun when the noun is indefinite. For example:
| .هَــاي قِــصَّــة رِجَّـــال خِــسِــر كُـــلّ إِشِـــيْ hāy qiṣṣet rijjāl khisir kull ’ishi It is a story of a man who lost everything. |
Compare this to the case when referring to a definite noun:
| .هَــاي قِــصَّــة اِلــرِّجَّـــال اِلــلِّــيْ خِــسِــر كُـــلّ إِشِـــيْ hāy qiṣṣet ir-rijjāl illi khisir kull ’ishi It is a story of the man who lost everything. |
Note the change when the noun رِجَّـــال (rijjal) ‘man’ becomes definite, i.e., اِلــرِّجَّـــال (ir-rijjal) ‘the man,’ requiring the use of the relative pronoun اِلــلِّــيْ (illi).
Indefinite Relative Pronouns
In English, we add the suffix ‘-ever’ to interrogatives like ‘who,’ ‘when,’ ‘where,’ and ‘how’ to form indefinite relative pronouns: ‘whoever,’ ‘whenever,’ ‘wherever,’ and ‘however,’ etc.
In Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic, interrogatives can be combined with the particle مَـــا (mā) to form indefinite relative pronouns—a common and powerful tool in everyday speech.
| Interrogative + مَـــا (mā) = Indefinite Relative Pronoun |
If the indefinite relative pronoun is followed by the present tense, it is normally in the subjunctive mood.
Here are some examples:
| Indefinite Relative Pronoun | Example |
| شُـــوْ مَـــا shū mā whatever | .رَح أُوكِــل شُــوْ مَــا تُــطْــبُــخ raḥ ’owkil shū mā tuṭbukh I will eat whatever you cook. |
| إِيـــش مَـــا ’eysh mā whatever | .إِيـــش مَــا تْــسَـــوِّيْ مَــا رَحْ يُــزْبُــط ’eysh mā tsawwi mā raḥ yuzbuṭ Whatever you do, it won’t work. |
| مِــيْــن مَـــا mīn mā whoever | .اِسْـــأَل مِــيْــن مَـــا بِـــدَّك is’al mīn mā biddak Ask whoever you want. |
| كِــيْــف مَـــا kīf mā however | .وَزِّع اِلْــمَــصَــارِيْ كِــيْــف مَــا بِـــدَّك wazzi‘ il-maṣāri kīf mā biddak Distribute the money however you want. |
| قَـــدّ/قَـــدِّيــش مَـــا qadd/qaddeysh mā however much | كُـــلْ قَـــدّ مَـــا بِـــدَّك. kul qadd mā biddak Eat however much you want. |
| وِيـــن مَـــا weyn mā wherever | .وِيـــن مَــا أَرُوْح بَــشُــوْفُــه weyn mā ’arūḥ bashūfuh Wherever I go, I see him. |
| إِيــمْــتَــى مَـــا † eymta mā whenever | .إِيــمْــتَــى مَــا تِــيْــجِــيْ خَــبِّــرْنِــيْ eymta mā tīji khabbirni Whenever you come, let me know. |
† Another alternative to إِيــمْــتَــى مَـــا (eymta mā) is وَقْـــت مَـــا (waqt mā).
Finally, the indefinite relative pronoun مَــهْــمَــا (mahma) means ‘no matter what’ or ‘no matter how’ and is followed by a past verb or a present subjunctive verb. For example:
| .مَــهْــمَــا حَــاوَل، عَ الْــفَــاضِــيْ mahma ḥāwal ‘a-l-fāḍi No matter what he tried, it was in vain. |
| .مَــهْــمَــا أَقُـــوْل، مَــا رَح يْــصَــدِّقْــنِــي mahma ’aqūl mā raḥ (i) yṣaddiqni No matter what I say, he won’t believe me. |
Other lessons in Level IV: